Introduction
During the Roaring ‘20s, the United States government passed the 18th Amendment, which banned the consumption, buying, and sale of all alcohol in the country. This was called Prohibition. The U.S. government thought that passing this law would stop all the crime and illegal things occurring in the U.S. They were wrong and instead it lead to much more illegal acts in the America and a lot more crime. Prohibition started gangs and illegal bars. These gangs would try to sell alcohol illegally in America, and would sometimes turn to violence in order to do this. Vocabulary: Bootleggers: People who delivered the illegal alcohol to the speakeasies. Speakeasy: An illegal bar or tavern during Prohibition that would sell alcohol and have entertainment. Prohibition: Passed in the 18th Amendment which prohibited the buying, sale, and consumption of alcohol in the 1920s. Gangsters: During the 1920’s there were plenty of gangsters roaming around. You had Al Capone, “Big Jim” Colosimo and plenty others. Al Capone had a strong role during the 1920’s. He was born January 17th in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a part of the Kid Gangster Crew. He actually was a part of several different crews as a kid. As a kid Capone was smart but decided to drop out of school when he was in the sixth grade. Capone needed money for weapons so decided to be a clerk in a candy store. He even worked in a bowling alley and a book store. Then he became a part of the Five Points Gang in Manhattan. At first he worked as a bartender and a bouncer for the gang till he proved himself worthy. While he worked in the bar he got several scars and was nicknamed “Scarface.” In 1918 Capone met an Irish girl at a dance. They got married that year and were husband and wife December 30th. His first charge was for murdering 2 men in the city. He worked for a man that went by the name of Yale. Yale sent him to Chicago to wait things to cool down. He arrived in Chicago in 1919 and moved the family in. In Chicago Capone went to work for one of Yale’s mentors. Soon Capone ranked up and owned a bootlegger store with his new mentor. He soon became a full partner in saloons, gambling houses and brothels. Later in Chicago Capone’s mentor Torrio was shot by a rival gang member. He has now inherited the job and became the boss. Through 1925 to 1930 Capone made his industry three times bigger. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries at a reported income of $100,000,000 a year. Thompson hired a new police chief to run Capone out of Chicago. He finally bought an estate at 93 Palm Island, Florida in 1928. Capone's most notorious killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more than 150 bullets into the victims. Six of the seven killed were members of Moran's gang, the seventh was an unlucky friend. Moran, probably the real target, was across the street when Capone's men arrived and stayed away when he saw the police uniforms. Capone was in Florida during the entire massacre. When Capone finally served his first prison time in May of 1929, it was simply for carrying a gun. In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, the toughest of the federal prisons, to begin his eleven-year sentence. Even in prison Capone took control, obtaining special privileges from the authorities such as furnishing his cell with a mirror, typewriter, rugs, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Because word spread that Capone had taken over in Atlanta, he was sent to Alcatraz.
By Justin S Work Cited- Allsop, Kenneth. The Bootleggers: the Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1968. http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone/cpn1.html - pictures and info
Bergreen, Laurence. Capone: the Man and the Era. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. - info
Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre This Massacre took place on February 14th 1929. This was a massacre that took place in Chicago. Al Capone’s gang attacked George “Bugs” Moran’s gang. Members of Al Capone’s gang were dressed as policemen. They pulled up in a black Cadillac that was unmarked like normal police cars. Capone’s henchmen lined up the 7 against a garage wall. They shot 7 of the gang members and left the bodies there, dead. Al Capone stayed out of jail stayed out of jail because he had great lawyers and knew how to bribe. Also the police could not link anyone to the killing except Fred "Killer" Burke. Right after the killing all of Al Capone’s gang members were out of sight before the cops arrived. For Al Capone and his gang this was a successful murder and a big loss for Moran’s gang. The city of Chicago was not stunned at this, but they memorialized it. The bullet marked bricks are still floating around today. By Matt W Work Cited- Sifakis, Carl. "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre." The Encyclopedia of American Crime, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2001. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAC1235&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 11, 2011). - Database
King, David C. Al Capone and the Roaring Twenties. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch, 1999. Print -book
Speakeasies
During the 1920’s, the 18th Amendment was passed, banning all the consumption and sale of alcohol in the United States. This amendment still did not stop people from drinking. Everyone who still wanted to drink created their own alcohol after this amendment was passed, or just went to speakeasies. Speakeasies were secret saloons, nightclubs, or bars, during the 1920’s that were supplied with alcohol by criminals called bootleggers. They would have music, dancers, and much entertainment, and they also mixed the upper class people with the lower class people because they all wanted to drink, so they all went to a speakeasy to drink illegally. Most speakeasies were operated by American gangsters who would sell their illegally smuggled alcohol into the United States for people to drink in speakeasies. One speakeasy operated by an American gangster, was The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York. It was run by Owney Madden. Many speakeasies were closed as well, but because some owners of speakeasies had political power in the United States, shortly after they were closed, they were paid to be reopened like nothing happened. The Cotton Club (NYC)
The Cotton Club was a speakeasy opened in the heart of Harlem, New York in 1923. It was run by a New York gangster named Owney Madden. The club was closed briefly several times, but because of the owner and his political power, it was usually reopened quickly after. At this speakeasy, there was much segregation, and the only African-American people who were allowed in, were either the workers who served people, or the band or orchestra that played at the speakeasy. The Cotton Club also had much entertainment. It had dancers, singers, comedians, music, and even a house band ran by Duke Ellington from 1927 to 1930. For more information on Duke Ellington and The Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance, click here: http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/Harlem-Renaissance-Cotton-Club.html
Green Mill (Chicago
This was another famous speakeasy during the 1920s. It was a jazz club, and speakeasy with tons of entertainment. It had two pianos, and a stage for the jazz band to play for entertainment. It was once owned by Jack McGurn, Al Capone’s right hand man. This speakeasy was located in Broadway, Chicago. Behind the bar, in the speakeasy, there was a trap door that led to tunnels that traveled underground to discreetly deliver liquor and alcohol back and forth without getting caught out in the open. These tunnels ran throughout all the stores near this speakeasy.
Works Cited By Harrison M "Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. <http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/cotton-club-harlem-1923>.
Dallek, Robert. American History. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2008. Print.
During the 1920’s the 18th amendment was added to the constitution. It said that any buying, selling, or the consumption of alcohol was illegal. However many people still did these things anyways. The people who delivered this alcohol were called bootleggers. Bootlegging thrived during the prohibition. It was even estimated that Americans consumed 100 million gallons of bootlegged liquor annually during the prohibition. The bootlegging business was booming which lead to many gang fights for control of the business. One of the most famous of these gangs was the Capone’s from Chicago. They were involved in many gang fights over control of bootlegging. It was estimated that almost 1000 men died because of the bootleg wars in Chicago.
In the late 1920s, Al Capone was one of the most successful criminals in the U.S.. When President Hoover was elected, he was determined to stop Capone and his crimes. Hoover started by getting IRS agents to build a case against him about him not paying his taxes. Then he hired a man named Eliot Ness to go after Capone’s breweries and distilleries. Ness wrote a book called The Untouchables in which he estimated Capone had 20 breweries that sent out 100 barrels of hard liquor every day. To help him with his task of capturing the breweries, Ness hired a team of 9 men to search and destroy the breweries. Ness and his team spent time looking and with time found their first target. They charged into the brewery with sawed off shotguns and yelled that it was a federal raid. Over the next few months, Ness and his team shut down around 19 distilleries and breweries, worth around $1,000,000. Ness continued to shut down Capone’s operations, and when an attempt to pay him and his partner off failed, he was targeted for murder. Ness barely escaped Capone’s attacks many times, and in one assault his friend was murdered. Ness kept going at Capone, and humiliated him by driving a parade of his captured trucks in front of Capone’s headquarters. Capone was furious and became obsessed with having Ness killed. But Ness again got lucky and evaded being killed with a car bomb. The government soon got Capone and convicted him on tax evasion and not Prohibition Violation. He went to jail where he deteriorated from syphilis and by the end of his sentence was nearly a vegetable.
3.) http://www.ifip.com/ness.html
This has brief explanation of “The Real Story” behind Eliot Ness, providing light behind the blunt firefights in The Untouchables flim.
Introduction
During the Roaring ‘20s, the United States government passed the 18th Amendment, which banned the consumption, buying, and sale of all alcohol in the country. This was called Prohibition. The U.S. government thought that passing this law would stop all the crime and illegal things occurring in the U.S. They were wrong and instead it lead to much more illegal acts in the America and a lot more crime. Prohibition started gangs and illegal bars. These gangs would try to sell alcohol illegally in America, and would sometimes turn to violence in order to do this.
Vocabulary:
Bootleggers: People who delivered the illegal alcohol to the speakeasies.
Speakeasy: An illegal bar or tavern during Prohibition that would sell alcohol and have entertainment.
Prohibition: Passed in the 18th Amendment which prohibited the buying, sale, and consumption of alcohol in the 1920s.
Gangsters:
During the 1920’s there were plenty of gangsters roaming around. You had Al Capone, “Big Jim” Colosimo and plenty others. Al Capone had a strong role during the 1920’s. He was born January 17th in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in a rough neighborhood and was a part of the Kid Gangster Crew. He actually was a part of several different crews as a kid. As a kid Capone was smart but decided to drop out of school when he was in the sixth grade. Capone needed money for weapons so decided to be a clerk in a candy store. He even worked in a bowling alley and a book store. Then he became a part of the Five Points Gang in Manhattan. At first he worked as a bartender and a bouncer for the gang till he proved himself worthy. While he worked in the bar he got several scars and was nicknamed “Scarface.” In 1918 Capone met an Irish girl at a dance. They got married that year and were husband and wife December 30th. His first charge was for murdering 2 men in the city. He worked for a man that went by the name of Yale. Yale sent him to Chicago to wait things to cool down. He arrived in Chicago in 1919 and moved the family in. In Chicago Capone went to work for one of Yale’s mentors. Soon Capone ranked up and owned a bootlegger store with his new mentor. He soon became a full partner in saloons, gambling houses and brothels. Later in Chicago Capone’s mentor Torrio was shot by a rival gang member. He has now inherited the job and became the boss. Through 1925 to 1930 Capone made his industry three times bigger. Capone controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, gambling houses, brothels, horse and race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries at a reported income of $100,000,000 a year. Thompson hired a new police chief to run Capone out of Chicago. He finally bought an estate at 93 Palm Island, Florida in 1928. Capone's most notorious killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more than 150 bullets into the victims. Six of the seven killed were members of Moran's gang, the seventh was an unlucky friend. Moran, probably the real target, was across the street when Capone's men arrived and stayed away when he saw the police uniforms. Capone was in Florida during the entire massacre. When Capone finally served his first prison time in May of 1929, it was simply for carrying a gun. In May 1932, Capone was sent to Atlanta, the toughest of the federal prisons, to begin his eleven-year sentence. Even in prison Capone took control, obtaining special privileges from the authorities such as furnishing his cell with a mirror, typewriter, rugs, and a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Because word spread that Capone had taken over in Atlanta, he was sent to Alcatraz.
By Justin S
Work Cited- Allsop, Kenneth. The Bootleggers: the Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1968.
Bergreen, Laurence. Capone: the Man and the Era. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. - info
Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre
This Massacre took place on February 14th 1929. This was a massacre that took place in Chicago. Al Capone’s gang attacked George “Bugs” Moran’s gang. Members of Al Capone’s gang were dressed as policemen. They pulled up in a black Cadillac that was unmarked like normal police cars. Capone’s henchmen lined up the 7 against a garage wall. They shot 7 of the gang members and left the bodies there, dead. Al Capone stayed out of jail stayed out of jail because he had great lawyers and knew how to bribe. Also the police could not link anyone to the killing except Fred "Killer" Burke. Right after the killing all of Al Capone’s gang members were out of sight before the cops arrived. For Al Capone and his gang this was a successful murder and a big loss for Moran’s gang. The city of Chicago was not stunned at this, but they memorialized it. The bullet marked bricks are still floating around today.
By Matt W
Work Cited-
Sifakis, Carl. "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre." The Encyclopedia of American Crime, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2001. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAC1235&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 11, 2011). - Database
King, David C. Al Capone and the Roaring Twenties. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch, 1999. Print -book
Speakeasies
During the 1920’s, the 18th Amendment was passed, banning all the consumption and sale of alcohol in the United States. This amendment still did not stop people from drinking. Everyone who still wanted to drink created their own alcohol after this amendment was passed, or just went to speakeasies. Speakeasies were secret saloons, nightclubs, or bars, during the 1920’s that were supplied with alcohol by criminals called bootleggers. They would have music, dancers, and much entertainment, and they also mixed the upper class people with the lower class people because they all wanted to drink, so they all went to a speakeasy to drink illegally.
Most speakeasies were operated by American gangsters who would sell their illegally smuggled alcohol into the United States for people to drink in speakeasies. One speakeasy operated by an American gangster, was The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York. It was run by Owney Madden. Many speakeasies were closed as well, but because some owners of speakeasies had political power in the United States, shortly after they were closed, they were paid to be reopened like nothing happened.
The Cotton Club (NYC)
The Cotton Club was a speakeasy opened in the heart of Harlem, New York in 1923. It was run by a New York gangster named Owney Madden. The club was closed briefly several times, but because of the owner and his political power, it was usually reopened quickly after. At this speakeasy, there was much segregation, and the only African-American people who were allowed in, were either the workers who served people, or the band or orchestra that played at the speakeasy. The Cotton Club also had much entertainment. It had dancers, singers, comedians, music, and even a house band ran by Duke Ellington from 1927 to 1930.
For more information on Duke Ellington and The Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance, click here: http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/Harlem-Renaissance-Cotton-Club.html
Green Mill (Chicago
This was another famous speakeasy during the 1920s. It was a jazz club, and speakeasy with tons of entertainment. It had two pianos, and a stage for the jazz band to play for entertainment. It was once owned by Jack McGurn, Al Capone’s right hand man. This speakeasy was located in Broadway, Chicago. Behind the bar, in the speakeasy, there was a trap door that led to tunnels that traveled underground to discreetly deliver liquor and alcohol back and forth without getting caught out in the open. These tunnels ran throughout all the stores near this speakeasy.
More information on this famous speakeasy can be found here: http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id153.htm
Works Cited
By Harrison M
"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. <http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/cotton-club-harlem-1923>.
Dallek, Robert. American History. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2008. Print.
"Gangsters & Speakeasies: Buildings of Historic Chicago « AllPropertyManagement.com." Property Management Companies | AllPropertyManagement.com. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. <http://www.allpropertymanagement.com/blog/2010/01/20/gangsters-speakeasies-buildings-historic-chicago/>.
"The Green Mill Lounge: Former Chicago Speakeasy Takes You Back in Time." Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 11 Mar. 2011. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/567677/the_green_mill_lounge_former_chicago.html>.
"The Green Mill." My Al Capone Museum. Web. 11 Mar. 2011. <http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id153.htm>.
"Harlem Renaissance Cotton Club." The 1920s - Roaring Twenties Fashion and Music. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/Harlem-Renaissance-Cotton-Club.html.
Bootleggers
By: Sam H
During the 1920’s the 18th amendment was added to the constitution. It said that any buying, selling, or the consumption of alcohol was illegal. However many people still did these things anyways. The people who delivered this alcohol were called bootleggers. Bootlegging thrived during the prohibition. It was even estimated that Americans consumed 100 million gallons of bootlegged liquor annually during the prohibition.
The bootlegging business was booming which lead to many gang fights for control of the business. One of the most famous of these gangs was the Capone’s from Chicago. They were involved in many gang fights over control of bootlegging. It was estimated that almost 1000 men died because of the bootleg wars in Chicago.
Citation Information
Sifakis, Carl. "bootlegging." The Encyclopedia of American Crime, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2001. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAC0173&SingleRecord=True
http://excellentproj.com/2011/02/08/bootleggers-all/
http://www.drugrehabilitationtoday.com/evolution-of-treatment-for-addiction/responses-to-prohibition/
Eliot Ness and the Untouchables
In the late 1920s, Al Capone was one of the most successful criminals in the U.S.. When President Hoover was elected, he was determined to stop Capone and his crimes. Hoover started by getting IRS agents to build a case against him about him not paying his taxes. Then he hired a man named Eliot Ness to go after Capone’s breweries and distilleries. Ness wrote a book called The Untouchables in which he estimated Capone had 20 breweries that sent out 100 barrels of hard liquor every day. To help him with his task of capturing the breweries, Ness hired a team of 9 men to search and destroy the breweries. Ness and his team spent time looking and with time found their first target. They charged into the brewery with sawed off shotguns and yelled that it was a federal raid. Over the next few months, Ness and his team shut down around 19 distilleries and breweries, worth around $1,000,000. Ness continued to shut down Capone’s operations, and when an attempt to pay him and his partner off failed, he was targeted for murder. Ness barely escaped Capone’s attacks many times, and in one assault his friend was murdered. Ness kept going at Capone, and humiliated him by driving a parade of his captured trucks in front of Capone’s headquarters. Capone was furious and became obsessed with having Ness killed. But Ness again got lucky and evaded being killed with a car bomb. The government soon got Capone and convicted him on tax evasion and not Prohibition Violation. He went to jail where he deteriorated from syphilis and by the end of his sentence was nearly a vegetable.
Links:
1.) http://cleveland.about.com/od/famousclevelanders/p/eliotness.htm
This is a site with information all about Eliot Ness. It includes his early life, his career with the law, and what he did after he captured Capone.
2.) http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/ness/1.html
This site has extensive information about his whole life.
3.) http://www.ifip.com/ness.html
This has brief explanation of “The Real Story” behind Eliot Ness, providing light behind the blunt firefights in The Untouchables flim.
4.) http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ness/
This site has many photographs of Eliot Ness and his wife, family and associates.
By Jon C
Works Cited
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/ness/3.html
http://www.crimeposium.com/Eliot%20Ness/images/Eliotness.jpg
http://www.solpass.org/5s/images/crowbar.jpg